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Zimbabwe’s new president has implicated a ruling party faction loyal to Robert Mugabe’s wife in a bomb attack that nearly killed him over the weekend.

Significantly raising the political temperature ahead of a crucial election next month, Emmerson Mnangagwa claimed that rivals who had hoped to install Grace Mugabe as president may have been behind Saturday’s apparent assassination attempt.

Renewing a vicious rivalry with the former first lady, Mr Mnangagwa said he suspected Mrs Mugabe’s G40 faction of being behind the attack because it opposed the democratic turn the country had taken under his stewardship.

“The people who are aggrieved about the new dispensation are the G40,” he told the BBC. “That is the logical and reasonable conclusion one may make.”

More than 40 others were wounded, among them the wife of Constantino Chiwenga, the general — now a vice president — who launched the military takeover that ousted Mr Mugabe and brought Mr Mnangagwa to power in November.

Grace Mugabe greets party supporters at a rally in Chinhoyi in July 2017Credit:
Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP

No arrests or claims of responsibility have been made, and Mr Mnangagwa admitted he had no evidence for his statement. But the attack, and the president’s accusation, has rattled a country with a history of election-related violence, some of which has previously been linked to the president.

Hundreds of opposition supporters were tortured, abducted or even murdered in the presidential election of 2008 that that was won, in the first round by the opposition’s candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, who has since died.

Mr Mnangagwa, President Mugabe’s most loyal acolyte at the time, was accused of organising violence during the run-off campaign which was so bad Tsvangirai had to withdraw from the poll.

He was also accused of rigging the polls to deliver victory to Mr Mugabe, a claim he has always denied.

Some in the opposition have suggested that Saturday’s bomb was an “inside job” meant to create the same atmosphere of fear that would allow Mr Mnangagwa to call in the army to restore order.

Such accusations seem unlikely, however — not least because the president appears to have been lucky to have survived the blast.

Emmerson Mnangagwa greets supporters before an explosion at an election rally in Bulawayo Credit:
Reuters

Mr Mnangagwa has also proved much more tolerant of his opponents than the man he ousted, allowing opposition marches and rallies to proceed unhindered.

The president also has much to lose from a tainted election, the conduct of which will dictate Zimbabwe’s international rehabilitation.

The United States and the European Union have said that a reassessment of sanctions and possible debt relief for the near-bankrupt country are contingent on a free and fair poll.

The bomb also raised fears in the south, where Bulawayo lies, that it could be used as a pretext to repress the Ndebele ethnic minority, which tends to support the opposition.

Thousands were killed and fled the country in the early 1980s during purges launched by President Mugabe when Mr Mnangagwa was his security minister.

But Mr Mnangagwa was quick to absolve southerners, calming tensions, and analysts said it was not unreasonable of the president to implicate the G40 faction.

“It is a legitimate message for Mnangagwa to say he suspects the G40 would be the engineers behind the explosion,” said Eldred Masungure, a veteran political scientist at the University of Harare.

“It is common cause that what happened last Saturday is a continuation of the intra-Zanu PF struggles and G40 were part of all that equation… There is unfinished business within Zanu PF.”

Three of its leaders fled into exile, including Jonathan Moyo, Mr Mugabe’s most loyal servant, who claimed in a tweet that the ruling party was behind the bomb.

Others were purged from their posts or faced prosecution — although some were allowed to leave for South Africa for medical treatment and have subsequently been quietly allowed to return.

Mid-ranking G40 supporters still hold parliamentary seats and positions within the ruling party. It is unclear if Mr Mnangagwa will attempt to purge them after the election.

Mr Mnangagwa leads his nearest opponent Nelson Chamisa by 11 points in the latest opinion poll. more than a quarter of respondents, however, refused to indicate who they would vote for, leading some to forecast a tight race.

Some ruling party figures have threatened to call in the army for a second time if Mr Chamisa wins, but Mr Mnangagwa has promised to respect the result.